Small Non-profit With Big Impact Warms the Heart of Its Community
EAST PALO ALTO, CA – A small non-profit organization, Project WeHOPE, is warming the heart of this struggling community, both figuratively and literally.
Among its many initiatives, Project WeHOPE (“We Help Other People Excel”) founded East Palo Alto’s only warming shelter for homeless people in 2009. Every night from November to April, 27 people on average come in from the cold for a hot meal, medical attention, and a warm place to sleep. The shelter houses individuals, and increasingly in these economic times, entire families.
The shelter opened after it became apparent through the 2009 San Mateo County homeless census that East Palo Alto has the greatest percentage of homeless in the county.
Project WeHOPE volunteer Michael Holt organizes food inside the gym used as a warming shelter for homeless people during the late fall, winter and early spring months.
“Very little was being done…no one was housing the homeless,” said Pastor Paul Bains, President of WeHOPE and co-founder with his wife Cheryl. They did what only made sense to them: opened the shelter in the organization’s gym, located in an industrial park warehouse.
But Bains wasn’t satisfied with just a place to come in from the cold. The shelter had to be, in his words, “not a hand out, but a hand up.” Everyone looking for help was evaluated for their medical and mental needs, and given help with connecting to longer-term transitional housing.
“We’re trying to help the people become members of society,” he said. “We help them to restore their dignity.”
Project WeHOPE needs $30,000 to keep the Warming Shelter open through the end of April. Go to the website now to help!
Watch the video about the organization’s Feb. 26 fundraiser: “Enchanted Gardens”.
